Title: "Seregbrûn"

Author: LegolasLover2003 aka Ashley

Category: Book - "Lord of the Rings"

Genre: Drama/Fantasy

Rating: M

Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to "The Lord of the Rings". I just adore it to pieces! OC characters (Legede, Legolia, Morolas, Caldor, Galenion) may be used but ONLY if you ask first and ONLY if I say yes.

NOTE: This story takes place almost half a year after the events in "Nothrimraegath". As that is still a story that I am writing, the prologue is all you'll be getting until it is finished, since the outcome of that story greatly impacts the first chapter of this one.

Prologue

"ADA!"

Lithe fingers reached forward, grasping the body that fell into outstretched arms. The sanguine liquid which pooled onto the throne dais's steps flowed over pale hands that tried desperately to staunch the bleeding. It smelled of copper and of iron mixed with the soft scent of pine coming in from the great windows. The wound however, was deep. Never before had the prince seen his father struck down so... But he knew of Men and Elves who had suffered such hurts... and rarely did they survive to the next morn.

No one who was gathered in the throne room so much as moved... not a single member of the court nor of the guard lent a hand.

There was but only one lone figure who sprang to the king's side... only one Elf who now was desperately trying to save the life before him.

"Ibeston en-le! Adar u-broniatha! Ibeston, togoane nestol!" ~[{ I beg of you (thee)! Father will not endure! Please (I beg), bring to him a healer! }]~

The silence in the throne room was thick. The tension palpable. Legolas could hear his heart beating, could feel his father's will to stand, gravely injured as he was, and face the foe before him... the foe who stood, sword bloodied and dripping with the very life of the Elvenking.

When no one spoke, when no one rushed to his father's aid, the prince's angry blue eyes locked on the dark haired Elf towering before him.

"Galenion!"

Thranduil's elder brother smirked slightly before addressing his nephew. He tossed his sword to the stone floor, ears delighting in the clinking sound of the blade it skittered down along the steps. "Caun Legolas... Adar lin gwannatha." ~[{ Prince Legolas... Your father will die. }]~

Seeing the younger Elf move to free himself from his father's body, Galenion could only laugh. The prince was no threat to him now and he knew it. Then, one bloodied hand reached up to still Legolas' movements. Blue eyes found their way down to look into a gaze that was so like his own and the prince shook his head, clasping the hand against his cheek. Soft words came from Thranduil's lips, and though not even Galenion could hear it, the wicked Elven exile knew that his little brother was even still giving orders. It seemed, now however, that the prince would not obey his newly, and rightly, seated king...

Galenion turned, ascending the dais steps before seating himself on the Elvenking's throne. "Hain tog tann gador! Na Eryn Lasgalen nin! ~[{ Lead them to the dungeon (to that dungeon)! Eryn Lasgalen (The Wood of Greenleaves) is mine! }]~

The dark gaze of the eldest son of Oropher locked with the blue of Legolas as guard after guard rushed forward to restrain the prince. But the blond said nothing. Did nothing.

Their people had forsaken them.

And now, they had left his father to die.

After all he had done... after everything he had gone through... after Sauron and Saruman, Ungoliant and Morolas... after he had given every last bit of strength his body would muster to the very people of Eryn Lasgalen... to his home...

Without so much as a sound, Legolas lifted Thranduil into his arms with all the dignity and grace that he could summon, and carried his father as they were escorted from the throne room.

The dungeons would not be kind... nor, he knew, would the wrath of Galenion.

Seregbrûn

Old Blood

He came without warning...

In the deepest reaches of the night, while my father slumbered in a far off land.

And when we returned home... when I accompanied my father to his halls once more.

We were met with nothing but despair.

For my uncle had returned to claim the throne denied to him in long years past.

And no more was there a friendly face towards myself or my father, amongst the people of Eryn Lasgalen.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Words To Know:

Ada = Father

Note on Elvish:

- All Elvish held within this chapter was looked up, conjugated, turned into plural and past and future and whatnot by my own hand, aside from the mentions below. "A Gateway To Sindarin" by David Salo and the Dragonflame Sindarin Dictionary were both used to try and make the grammar as accurate as I possibly could... without having a full working knowledge of how the language works. Critiques of my use of Sindarin (not that it's in there but that it's right or wrong or what have you) are appreciated. I ask however that you DO NOT flame in regards to my use of Sindarin throughout my stories as that will not always be the spoken language of the characters and the dialogue for the Prologue was done in complete Elvish simply to make the beginning of the story 'pop'.

- There is no word for "Please" or "Beg" in Sindarin, but I did find the closest thing I could in Neo-Sindarin to represent the same idea. It was a post by Darth Fingon on the website The Lizard Council and the way the word came about was explained thus:
While there is nothing even remotely close to 'please' among attested Sindarin words, it does show up in the Qenya Lexicon. The Qenya word is iqista, which would become iquista in standard Quenya. If we reverse-engineer from there and assume the primitive version was ikwista from root a root like IKW, the Old Sindarin would be ipista. This undergoes a lenition and a-affectation to make standard Sindarin ibesta- (verb). The verb ibesta- would mean something along the lines of 'to plead/beg/request'. The first person form is ibeston (I beg), or one can use the gerund ibestad roughly in the same way we use English 'please'.

- The word for "Healer" was not in my David Salo book nor the Dragonflame Sindarin Dictionary and therefore I had to look it up elsewhere. I found the appropriate word (at least to me) on the Yahoo Groups board "elfling" in which case the poster (lotr_osgiliath) was attempting to translate "The hands of the king are the hands of a healer" and therefore used "Nestol" for "Healer".

- On the title of this story, "Seregbrûn", I took the word for "Old" (Brûn) and for "Blood" (Sereg) and combined them into a single word and thus came out with "Old Blood" instead of "The Blood of Old" which was originally this story's title.

- On the name of "Galenion" and it's first mention within the story, I had originally intended for Legolas to yell "Uncle!". However that fell apart because there is no Sindarin word for uncle and he would have had to say "Brother of my Father" or "My Father's Brother" in which case it was more than one word and thus longer than I wanted for the dramatic effect and so it was changed to the Elf's name instead. The name is much like Legolas' own name, wherein it is not a direct spelling of any two words. Legolas has been cited as being spelling "Laegolas" properly (and indeed that is how you would pronounce his name) since it's using "Laeg" (Fresh & Green) and if you look at the Legolas character from Tolkien's "The Book of Lost Tales: Part I" (which is, in my own opinion, a different Elf altogether though it can easily be argued that they are the same as well) then you will see that his name could have been spelled as "Laigolas" (green-leaf) or "Legolast" (keen-sight) and somehow Legolas became the adopted form of the name. The same is true of the name "Galenion" wherein "Galu" (Blessed) and "Ion" (Male Descendant, in this case not directly meaning SON) were combined by me and a name was formed.

Author's Notes:

- As I said at the beginning of the Prologue, this story will NOT be updated (though I will be writing it) until the story "Nothrimraegath" AND, believe it or not, "Hiro Hyn Hidh Ab'Wanath: May They Find Peace After Death" (which I call "Triple H") are completed. This is due to the fact that both of those stories, as well as "Natha Daged Dhaer: They Are All Going To Die!" (which I call "NDD") come into play in this story as well. There WILL be spoilers in this story for those three, so if you haven't read them first, you might want to consider it.

- For those wondering when "Triple H" will be finished (because "NDD" is already completed as it is the prequel to "Triple H"), it only has around 3-5 chapters to finish it off... I just haven't exactly figured out HOW to finish IT off just yet (Get it? IT! You know of whom I speak...).

- Here's a quick rundown of what's up my sleeve right now in the universe of "The Lord of the Rings". I thought this might be helpful for readers who are looking for me to update something. As a side note, on my FF profile you will see a list of all of my LOTR stories and the order in which they occur.

1.) First off, I'm trying to figure out how to destroy Ungoliant and that is no easy feat so at the moment there is nothing new written for "Triple H".

2.) In the realm of "Nothrimraegath" (or "Nothrim" as I call it for short), I've got a new chapter half finished for it (the beginning half with Morolas, Legolas, and Legolia) and I have actually had that finished for some time now (like at least a year or so). I'm currently trying to decide if I want "Nothrim" to be shortly after "Triple H" or if I want more time to have passed. Seeing how "Seregbrun" (or "Sereg" as I will call it) takes place shortly after "Nothrim", it seems easier for me to keep Thranduil where he is right now in Minas Tirith (following "Triple H" and leading up to "Nothrim") than to have him make the journey home, only to come back to Gondor again.

3.) As far as "Faerin Gobennas" is concerned, I'm still working on that chapter story as well, but nothing new has been written for it as of right now. I'm having problems getting Legolas and Aragorn from point A to point B and until I decide how to do that and until I complete my Oropher/Thranduil/Greenwood research (which I've nearly exhausted all my in print sources on) then it too will start being updated.

4.) There is also the matter of "Revenge" (the sequel to "Savior & Destroyer") which still only has the one Prologue-ish chapter. It's on the back burner as far as LOTR chapter stories go right now so I'll let that one simmer a while longer before adding to it.

5.) I've also got a few one shots in the mix right now. One of them I can't disclose yet because it's for a contest so you'll have to wait about a month or so to read it.

6.) Another is a one-shot called "The Armor of Kings" which includes Legolas flashbacks to "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" (the movie) and Thranduil's gorgeousness sitting atop a white elk... and it is about halfway finished at this point. I think you'll be impressed with how much better I've gotten at writing a very little Estel, hehe.

7.) And finally, on the subject of my seemingly crack-fiction "Moira Revealed" (which is part 3 of the "FATE Quartet" and thus the sequel to both "Flashes of Light, Rulers of Fate" and to "A Destined Journey"), there is nothing new written past the update which I did the other day. This is because I'm having difficulty making a decision on if Nil needs to go to Helm's Deep and keep Haldir from dying, or if she needs to be swept off to Isengard prior to the emptying of Edoras. It all depends on if I want Grima carrying her off, or an Uruk-Hai snatching her during the battle. It's really nothing more than a timeline/chronological issue between the movie and the book and there's a very small window/time frame that I'm working within. The original plan (back in like 2006/2007 because yes, this little Isengard bit was planned out a LONG time ago) was for Nil to be taken by Grima to Isengard... but that was altered when I wrote Vid going off with Frodo and Sam and thus left no one to save poor movie-killed Haldir. So, once I make up my mind, it will be updated. Course, I could always decide NOT to save Haldir... -smirk-

Muse Moments:

Nil sighs, staring up at the ceiling as the soundtrack for "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" plays on her laptop at 3:00 AM.
"Is something the matter?"
Blinking, she notices Legolas standing in the doorway. "Not really... just can't sleep."
"Insomnia?"
Nil nods, sitting up for a moment and staring at Legolas. "Teach me to sleep like Elves."
When silence is her only answer, the woman frowns. "Come on, Leggy. Please?"
"Promise to stop tormenting me?" the prince asks.
"Never."
"Then no." he crosses his arms over his chest in a slight show of prissy annoyance. "Let Estel teach you."
"I can not teach her because I can not do it either." Aragorn replies from behind Legolas, a hand on the Elf's shoulder. "Ah, Nil... did I forget to mention that I came back from my camping trip... alone?"
Nil frowns once more. "But I thought Paris was with you."
"He was."
"So if... Oh for the love of the Shire, man! Did you leave that poor half naked Trojan in the cold?!"
Aragorn smirks slightly, "Maybe..."
Rolling her eyes, Nil stands from the bed and grabs her shoes and coat. "If he freezes out there, you're next, Dunedain. Not Legolas, not Thranduil, not anyone else in my stories." she points at the Ranger. "YOU are next. Got it?"
Legolas laughs, "Then I pray he does freeze."
Nil storms from the room in annoyance. "Muses... To the pits of Udun with the both of you!"